Ubisoft says previous PoP game was not a failure

Level design director for PoP: The Forgotten Sands, Michael McIntyre, has said that just because the new title is going back to basics for the Prince as far as looks and gameplay go – doesn’t mean the cell-shaded Prince is a thing of the past.

Speaking with Kotaku, McIntyre believes that there is room for all sorts of different imaginings thanks to the game’s environment, and just because the development team is not making a sequel to the Prince’s 2008 release – doesn’t mean that game was a failure.

“We firmly believe that Prince of Persia is a brand that can have multiple environments,” he said. “It makes a lot of sense for us.”

“We are happy with what we achieved with that title, and I think games like that can still exist. For me the difference in the 2008 game is that it had less player participation. The player didn’t decide when they wanted to be saved and when they wanted to wall run.

“In 2008 the experience was far more Zen. You keep playing, keep moving forward no matter what. You got in a rhythm and kept moving forward.”

As much as McIntyre liked the last entry in the series, he revealed that the decision made for that title came about as a desire to experiment with the franchise. Forgotten Sands, however, returns to the same basic formula as other games in the series.

“I grew up with the original Prince of Persia and with Sands of Time, [well] I like tough games,” he said, revealing that the “spike death” from the first game comes back in Forgotten Sands, along with the tradition view of death from the series.

The Forgotten Sands fills in the seven-year gap between The Sands of Time and the Warrior Within, and is slated for release in May.

It was revealed today during the Nintendo Media Summit, that the classic PoP game from 1992 would be included with the Wii version of Forgotten Sands.